Speaking Engagements, Publications & Media
Speaking Engagements
Immigration: Dislocation, Identity, Intergenerational Trauma and the Therapy Dyad
Chair and Presenter
American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) Annual Conference
Washington, DC · February 2027 (Upcoming)
Discussion Group: Using Fictional Vignettes to Discuss Racial and Othering Enactments in Psychoanalytic Education
Presenter
American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) Annual Conference
Washington, DC · February 2027 (Upcoming)
Refusing the Model Minority: Reclaiming Asian American Trauma from Psychoanalytic Silence
Co-Chair and Presenter
Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (Division 39) Annual Conference
New York, NY · April 2026
A Psychoanalytic, Sociocultural Understanding of Skin Color and Colorism in the Therapeutic Relationship
Guest Lecturer
William James College
Newton, MA · March 2026
Points of View on Supervision: Complexities in the Supervisory Dyad
Presenter and Panelist
Academic Lecture, Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute
Newton, MA · February 2026
A Psychoanalytic, Sociocultural Understanding of Skin Color and Colorism in the Therapeutic Relationship
Presenter and Co-Moderator
Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute
Newton, MA · September 2025
Actionable Strategies for Breaking the Cycle of Intergenerational Trauma
Group Facilitator and Workshop Developer
South Asian Psychology and Neuroscience Association (SAPNA) Conference
Cambridge, MA · May 2025
A Psychoanalytic, Sociocultural Understanding of Skin Color and Colorism in the Therapeutic Relationship
Presenter and Panelist
American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) Annual Conference
San Francisco, CA · February 2025
Annual Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Case Conference
Discussant
Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Psychodynamic Therapy and Research
Boston, MA · January 2025
A Psychodynamic Understanding of Skin Color in the Therapeutic Relationship with Clients of South Asian Heritage
Guest Lecturer
William James College
Newton, MA · March 2024
Navigating Parenthood from a Biopsychosocial Perspective
Presenter and Group Facilitator
Online Workshop and Question & Answer Session for Parents
Brookline, MA · 2022
Diabetes and Brain-Behavior Relationships
Guest Lecturer
Neuropsychological Assessment Center, MassGeneral Brigham
Salem, MA · 2019
Publications
Gupta, K. R. (2026). Skin tone fantasies, colorism, and the therapeutic relationship. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 43(1), 64–73.
While there has been a notable increase in conversation about race and racism in the psychoanalytic literature, skin tone and colorism have received less attention. For patients who have Indian heritage, lighter and darker skin tones can have multiple meanings in various contexts, including within the family, the Indian ethnic community, the social communities they interact with, and the larger sociopolitical context of the United States in which White and lighter skin is idealized and privileged. Exploring skin tone fantasies in psychotherapy can be a meaningful intervention to address racial and ethnic identity development, intrapsychic conflicts, interpersonal dynamics, and racial and skin tone trauma (Landor & McNeil Smith, 2019; Tummala-Narra, 2007). Skin tone biases and colorism within the Indian diaspora and in the United States are addressed within a historical, sociocultural context. Psychoanalytic ideas are discussed to understand the complex meanings, feeling states, enactments, and defenses that skin tone and colorism can raise for the patient and therapist who have shared Indian heritage.
Gupta, K. R. (2025). Book Review: The Indian Jungle: Psychoanalysis and Non-Western Civilizations. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 73(6), 889–897.
This review reflects on The Indian Jungle: Psychoanalysis and Non-Western Civilizations and the questions it raises about the cultural limits of psychoanalytic theory. Engaging the book’s exploration of Indian philosophical and cultural contexts, the review considers how psychoanalysis, which developed within Western epistemologies, encounters forms of subjectivity shaped by non-Western historical and symbolic worlds. Gupta invites clinicians to reflect on how our own cultural subjectivity informs what we recognize, interpret, and value in the analytic encounter.
Gupta, K. R. (2024). How modesty and purity standards hurt South Asian women. Brown Girl Magazine.
This article explores the psychological impact of modesty and purity expectations on South Asian women, including the ways cultural and familial messages about sexuality, gender, and reputation can contribute to shame, guilt, anxiety, and internal conflict. It examines the tension between individual identity and desires and expectations within family, cultural, and religious communities, while considering how these dynamics can affect relationships, sexual health, and experiences of trauma. The article also highlights pathways toward greater self-reflection, agency, connection, and support.
Featured Writing & Interviews
